On the Shortness of Life (Penguin Great Ideas)

116 Pages·2005·11.14 MB·English

PENGUIN BOOKS — GREAT IDEAS
On the Shortness of Life
Seneca
. 5 BC-AD
Seneca
On the Shortness of Life
TRANSLATED BY C. D. N. COSTA
PENGDIN BOOKS — GREAT IDEAS
PENGUIN BOOKS
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First published in Dialogues and Letters in Penguin Classics 1997
This selection first published in Penguin Books (U.K.) 2004
First published in the United States of America by Penguin Books 2005
7 9 10 8 6
Translation copyright © C. D. N. Costa 1997
All rights reserved
Taken from the Penguin Classics edition of Dialogues and Letters,
translated and edited by C. D. N. Costa
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, ca. 4 BC-65 AD
[Dialogi. English. Selections]
On the shortness of life / Seneca ; translated by G.D.N. Costa,
p. cm.—(Great ideas)
Contents: On the shortness of life—Consolation to Helvia—On tranquility of mind.
ISBN 0 14 30.3632 7
1. Conduct of life. I. Costa, Charles Desmond Nuttal. II. Seneca, Lucius Annaeus,
ca. 4 BC-65 AD. De breviate vitae. English. III. Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, ca. 4 BC-65 AD.
Consolatio ad Helviam matrem. English. IV. Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, ca. 4 BC-65 AD.
De tranquillitate animi. English. V Title. VI. Series.
B616.D532E5 2005
188—dc22 2005047450
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Contents
On the Shortness of Life i
Consolation to Helvia 34
On Tranquillity of Mind 68

On the Shortness of Life
Most human beings, Paulinus,* complain about the
meanness of nature, because we are born for a brief span
of life, and because this spell of time that has been given
to us rushes by so swiftly and rapidly that with very few
exceptions life ceases for the rest of us just when we are
getting ready for it. Nor is it just the man in the street
and the unthinking mass of people who groan over this
- as they see it - universal evil: the same feeling lies
behind complaints from even distinguished men. Hence
the dictum of the greatest of doctors:f 'Life is short, art
is long.' Hence too the grievance, most improper to a
wise man, which Aristotle expressed when he was taking
nature to task for indulging animals with such long
existences that they can live through five or ten human
lifetimes, while a far shorter limit is set for men who are
born to a great and extensive destiny. It is not that we
have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.
Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount
has been given to us for the highest achievements if it
were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless
luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at
last by death's final constraint to realize that it has passed
* A friend of Seneca's,
f Hippocrates.
away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not
given a short life but we make it short, and we are not
ill-supplied but wasteful of it. Just as when ample and
princely wealth falls to a bad owner it is squandered in
a moment, but wealth however modest, if entrusted to
a good custodian, increases with use, so our lifetime
extends amply if you manage it properly.
Why do we complain about nature? She has acted
kindly: life is long if you know how to use it. But one
man is gripped by insatiable greed, another by a laborious
dedication to useless tasks. One man is soaked in wine,
another sluggish with idleness. One man is worn out by
political ambition, which is always at the mercy of the
judgement of others. Another through hope of profit is
driven headlong over all lands and seas by the greed of
trading. Some are tormented by a passion for army life,
always intent on inflicting dangers on others or anxious
about danger to themselves. Some are worn out by the
self-imposed servitude of thankless attendance on the
great. Many are occupied by either pursuing other
people's money or complaining about their own. Many
pursue no fixed goal, but are tossed about in ever-
changing designs by a fickleness which is shifting, in-
constant and never satisfied with itself. Some have no
aims at all for their life's course, but death takes them
unawares as they yawn languidly - so much so that I
cannot doubt the truth of that oracular remark of the
greatest of poets: 'It is a small part of life we really live.'
Indeed, all the rest is not life but merely time. Vices
surround and assail men from every side, and do not
allow them to rise again and lift their eyes to discern the